Then, there were a couple of mail-exchanges with the Darden finaid director Larry, who ensured me that the school is trying its best to arrange for a scheme for international students and the deposit deadline will be readjusted to give the admits time to decide and to arrange funds. He also stressed on value of apping in R1, b’coz it’s in R1 that majority of merit-scholarships are given out. I also confirmed about the deferrals, which are actually awarded on a case-to-case basis. Larry has also left a comment on my previous post.

I’m really impressed by the school’s concern for deserving students and thus Darden is back in the list for me. I’m sure they’ll find a way out in case I manage to find a way in.

Propelled by this enthusiasm, I sat out yesterday evening and in a day, I have almost completed my first  drafts for all the three essays.. I had thought over the topics for quite some time, when I had got the news, so it didn’t take much time in assmbling my initial thoughts. Current status of the essays is draft version 0.9; After some basic more content addition, I’ll send my version 1.0 to my reviewers.

Right now, it’s Tuck time.. Giving final touch to the essays and filling up the data-forms. Also added the names of both my recommeders to the app-form. My recommeder #1  (my manager) is out-of-reach today, will call him tomorrow to push him in action ASAP. My recommender #2 (from my extra-curricular involvements) promised that she’ll be keying in the reco maximum byMonday.
Overall, Tuck application seems to be in good shape. (as far as timely submission is concerned at least. ) I believe I’ll comfortably meet EA deadline.

With in 24 hours ( I appreciate that!!), I got a reply from them::
The Darden School does not currently have a contract with a bank to provide international no-cosigner loans.  Because of the crisis in financial markets now, schools will need to renegotiate such non-cosigned lending programs for international students.  The earliest any banks are willing to have this conversation is December.  We will keep our website up to date with developments.  We certainly regret any difficulties this delay in information may create.

Summary:: Darden out of my list; at least, till further updates!
Lesson learnt:: Check out the other schools too!! Before it’s too late..  (For Darden, I had just started the first drafts.)

Other updates::
1) Tuck essays geting final shape; Should be manageable to meet the EA deadline.
2) Kelley may figure in my R1 list.. Met their people at Delhi BA fair, sounded impressive. (Though I need to fig in more before I decide)
But they need TOEFL.. Not sure whether I’ll be able to fit in that before their R1 deadline on Nov15.

Speed of time == 5 seconds/second!!
Now this is what I’m feeling these days!! Time is running out so fast..

It feels like yesterday, when I was talking to ahembea “With September starting tonorrow, every deadline would be “next month!!”". I find it hard to believe that 10 days have already passed and I’ve not achieved much. I know everyone around is feeling the same.. September is perhaps the fastest disappearing month for R1 applicants. (And perhaps December the slowest, when the results take their own sweet time to appear)

Meanwhile, here’re a few highlights:

• Have got my scores sent to Ross, Tuck and Darden. Amongst my target schools, I had already sent the scores to ISB and Emory on the G-day. Will wait for Duke. (See next point.)
• Duke is confusing me. The info regarding the no-cosigner loan on their website has changed from “guaranteed loans without a US cosigner ” to ” Information about the International Student Loan is forthcoming.” What does this mean?? Are they planning to discontinue their “International Student Loan “??
  My apping to Fuqua will depend on answer to this Question. I’ve written to them, but no response yet.
  (FAQs page still confirms theavailability, but I’ll trust the finaid site more)
• Talked to my recommenders:: Had told my boss even before writing GMAT. Needed to talk to two more. One of them, an ISB grad, is a program manager in my team.. He’s a great guy to talk to!!  I discussed the feasibility and practically of B-school targets and post-MBA goals with him. He’s ready to write a reco for me and to review my essays as well!!
  Today called upp my third recomender too. She too is happy to write a reco for me. She’s my supervisor from one of my extra-curricular invovements. And since it was she. who recommended me for one of the leadership positions in the organisation, I’m sure she’ll write a gr8 reco here too.
• Transcripts:: Stll trying to get hold of a junior to get these. If anything doesn’t crystallise in next 6-7 days, I guess I’ll have to make a trip to my alma-mater myself.. That has been a dream for long, but I don’t think that I’m in a position to afford that luxury at this stage.
• Goals-essay:: First draft mostly done.. Though need to add the “Why MBA” and “WHy now” part to it in addition to “Why school X” for  each school. This is the essay that needs to undergo a reality check by a few experts. (And may need a good amount of overhaul in case I’m not specific enough.)
• Tuck essays:: Leadership essay and Constructive criticism :::: first draft done.
  Personal deadline for rest of the first drafts:: Sept 13.
• Ross essays::
  Developing outlines for “alternate career” and “most challenging time” essays.
  Personal deadline for all first drafts:: Sept 16.

Hope I’m able to stick to these deadlines. Given the shape of the drafts that I’ve ready, I know that they need a lot of polishing as of now before they can be even sent to be reviewed by some of my close friends.

BTW, if anybody gets to know anything confirmed about Duke Interational Loan, do let me know.

I had started my journey with just ISB,Hyderabad as my only aim.. Gradually I opened up to NUS. Next in were middle-tier US-schools, which were a bit affordable in terms of living expenses and chances of scholarship.. But as I delved deeper into the B-school research, I almost fell in love with the MBA programs that top US universities offer.. And to make my dreams true, I got to know that all top universities offer you a loan without any co-cosigner !!
“Check your pocket and the loan conditions before you apply”, advised the gurus.. But from my latest experiences, I’d refine that to  ”Check your pocket and the loan conditions even before you start researching a program.” In case, you’e very sure that you can’t get somebody to co-sign your loan, this is the first thing that you should look for, else it can be quite annoying if you get to know about it after you’ve decided that it’s a school that you’d love to atend.

Tepper gave me my first heart-break in this regard.. Last year, when I was still contemplating about apping for Fall’08, I had set my eyes on Tepper.. I loved their General Mgmt program and vistas that are open for you in the tech-industry once you graduate from there.. I had even sent them my GMAT score..(though that was mostly w/o research, just went by the CMU brand name at that time). Later got to know that Tepper strictly needs a cosigner or a credit history in US before provide loans to international students. Talked to a current student and she confirmed the same.. Had done some of my research by then and it really pinched to drop it off my list.. 

A similar thing occured with Haas last week.. Before I started researching on Haas, I had made sure that the school does provide loans to international students w/o a cosigner .. What I missed out was that the maximum amount one can borrow is limited to the cost of tuition minus any scholarships that you get, which means even if i manage to get in with a decent schol, I’d need to bear the cost of living. And for Haas, that comes to be in order of  a whopping INR 17 Lakhs for 2 years!!
So had to drop Haas too!! 

After this, I decided to follow the mantra listed above.. Instead of delving into details of specialization, available career choices, city, class-size, chanes of getting in etc, I started exploring the availability of no-cosigner loans at all the colleges that I had still not struck off my list.. Of course, I’d be applying the other filters later, but no use exploring a school which you can’t afford.. RIght??

 The funda here is simple:: Any school that needs a cosigner for any loan is surely a no-go for me. Any school that offers a no cosigner-loan upto cost of attendance remains on my list. (to be checked for rest of the details). And what about schools offering a no-cosigner loan upto costs of tuition?? Well, these are something I need to check.. Will depend on the city and the expenses involved and whether I can afford the same..

So here goes a first level round up of whatever I discovered over last 48 hours:

• No cosigner loan upto full cost of attendance::Stanford,Ross,Tuck,Duke,Emory,Yale.
• No cosigner loan upto full cost of tuition::Haas, Kenan-Flagler,Kelley.
• Need a cosigner :: Tepper, UCLA Anderson, Mccombs, Fisher, Marshal.

I know a number of names are missing from this list.. Those are either the schools that I had already dropped off my list for some other reasons or the ones that I’ve not started researching yet or those for which I cud locate a clear statement on the issue on their site.

Hope this list is useful to others too..  Just adding the customary disclaimer:: Though I’ve taken care to cross-check things from my personal record-sheet before posting it here, still I’d advise everyone to do his/her own research before taking a decision.. (Also do let me know if you locate any discrepancy in the data above.)

BTW, I do feel that this was just the right time i discovered this. I was in process of pruning the list of my target schools and as you can see above the first level pruning is done for me by just applying the no-cosigner filter.
So coming up next:: the list of the schools I”d be apping to. (Have already delayed it by 3 weeks. )